


One language is never enough

by bi_nocturnal_g



Category: Firefly, Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Crossover, Gen Fic, M/M, Pre-Slash, Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-21
Updated: 2011-04-21
Packaged: 2017-10-18 11:32:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/188479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bi_nocturnal_g/pseuds/bi_nocturnal_g
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One language is never enough to fully express yourself</p>
            </blockquote>





	One language is never enough

**Author's Note:**

  * For [n0m_de_plum](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=n0m_de_plum).



> This is a slight crossover with tv series Firefly or more specific character River Tam. Footnotes at the end are the Engish translation for the Mandarin Chinese phrases interpersed in the story. My Chinese isn't that good, I'm a beginner, so any mistakes are mine, but if anyone sees something incorrectly don't be afraid to tell me.
> 
> This is an unfinished story, because I'm that kind of girl, so expect to read more of this. Also this entire series is dedicated to n0m_de_plum who has written me  [Jealous Caveman ](http://stevedannoslash.livejournal.com/350456.html). I hope you like it.

River cutely crunches her nose the minute she enters Danny’s apartment and sees how tiny it is. One step forward and she’s half standing with one foot outside and one inside the living room slash bedroom that’s filling up the rest of the place. From the doorway she can see all the way into the kitchen. It’s not exactly what she expected, granted she didn’t know what to expect, but this certainly wasn’t it.

"Māde!" 1 she swears, “Please tell me you don’t allow Grace here?” She takes a couple of steps more until she’s in the centre of the room, bumping against the pull out bed, with both arms thrown out to her side. "Dà gē 2, my bedroom is bigger than this!"

Danny rolls his eyes, because it’s not the first time someone said that; it surely won’t be the last.

He knows his place is not much to look at, but this is Hawaii. He’s done his homework the minute Rachel told him about moving the family to Hawaii. As if the sand and pineapples weren’t enough his ex-wife had to move to one of the most expensive states of America. If it wasn’t for Grace and his love for her he would’ve told Rachel where she could shove it, but in the end his baby girl was all he had, so if that meant packing up his stuff and saying goodbye to the rest of his family and friends and all things familiar then so be it.

"Give me a break, okay." Danny grouches, thinking back to those days when he first arrived in Hawaii. He was lucky to even have secured this place after seeing the real estate prices on Oahu.

River takes a seat on his pullout couch and watches as Danny tries to straighten the place by picking up discarded clothes lying around the apartment, softly grumbling to himself about dirty laundry and stubborn seals, She may be loopy in the head but even she has no idea how those two connect with each other. Off course considering where Danny lives, maybe it’s a Hawaii thing?

"Nǐ zhàngfū hǎo má?" 3 River asks after awhile when Danny takes a seat next to her, the smile on her face growing bigger by the minute when Danny groans out loud, apparently done with translating.

"Not you too?" Danny groans, once his mind’s done processing the words, the language tumbling out of River’s mouth strange and familiar at the same time. ' _Unbelievable'_ he thinks.  ' _It figures that not even an hour on_ _Hawaii_ _and already River is in on the joke_.'

Knowing he couldn’t lie to save his life when it came to River he grudgingly answered her question, wincing with every word, a faint blush gracing his cheeks.

"Steve is fine and unless I bashed my head and am now hallucinating, which is a high possibility let me tell you, last time I checked he's not my husband." Danny has his mouth open again to tell her off; ready to try and hide away in his rants to throw off River, even though the both know it has never once worked on her.

But hey he has to do something, anything to throw her off, it's already a pretty embarrassing situation he found himself in, the last thing he wants is for her to make it worse by teasing him about it.

"What’s he like?" River interrupts because reading about someone life story on paper is nothing compared to hearing it out loud. She wonders if Danny knows she's been digging into Steve past as she effectively ends Danny’s rant before it could begin his mouth snapping shut with a click.

Danny is still, mind spinning round and round on how to properly describe Steve. He shakes his head; crosses his arms, and look away from River. He can't believe that after all these years he hasn’t learned his lesson yet. He knows how bad it was back in high school, but now he has to repeat history it all over again and fall in love with his best friend.

They haven’t said it in many words, and Steve coupled with his aversion for feelings and lack of properly mammal-to-mammal interaction can't even admit it even to himself, but Danny considers him his best friend on the island...and something more. It's hard to not feel something when he's around Steve.

Steve with his stupid grin, that never fails to melt Danny’s heart, his stupid tattoo-filled compact body, which he always has to show off much to Danny's dismay and that stupid Aneurysm face he pulls that Danny finds so adorable on him, has captured his heart. He tried to fight it, but in the end he knew he was fast losing the battle over his heart. And his partner wasn't even aware of it.

He's always heading into danger with guns blazing; acting all invincible and stoic as if getting slugged in the chest or being blown up is nothing. God the man is so frustrating, never fearing for his life, always going first and protecting Danny because he has Grace to think about. It hurts that he doesn't want to acknowledge that there were people, like Danny, who'd give a damn if something happens to Steve too.

River is grinning next to him, eyes twinkling and Danny realizes his mistake too late, snaps back to reality.

  
"I said that out loud, didn’t I?" Danny winces.

River pats his arm comfortingly. "Zhè bìng bù huài. Méiyǒu shénme kě dānxīn de." 4 

River's soft voice washes over him, the rise and fall of every word comforting even though Danny has no idea what she's saying to him. His Chinese is no where near as good as River (or Steve for that matter) and years of not using it has left him rusty with speaking and understanding it. There's something about his tongue contorting in weird and strange ways they were never meant to that puts a damper on his ability to learn it, also he can't properly rant in Chinese.

Seeing that she's lost Danny to his daydreams River slides closer to him, moulding her body against Danny as she lays her head comfortably on his chest, the calming rhythmic sounds of his heart beating steady and true.

"Nǐ ài tǎ." 5  She whispers, long nimble fingers dancing across Danny’s chest. 

He wants to ask what she said, a part wanting to know if he understood her correctly while another part of him he's been trying so hard to ignore these last couple of months already knows what River is trying to say to him. She's always been able to read him. And Danny is pretty transparent when it comes to Steve. How his partner still hasn't found out about Danny’s secret, remains a mystery to Danny.  

He raises his hand and softly cards it through the soft strands of River's hair. When River doesn't say anything else for awhile Danny breathes a sigh of relief, thinking her to be asleep.

"When can I meet him?" River asks suddenly.

The hysterical laughter burst out of Danny when he finally registers River's words. The thought of River and Steve meeting each other making him shudder.

"How do you say never in Mandarin?"

"Never zhōngwén zěnme shuō?" 6 River answers, then laughs after hearing Danny massacre the Chinese language when he tries to repeat what she said.

It’s not that he doesn't want them to meet each other; it just makes him uneasy knowing River's tendency to sprout wacky stuff only she seems to understand and Steve’s protective nature concerning Danny.

"But Danny."  River whines.

"Hâo le ma."7

The polite order falls easily from Danny’s lips. It’s one of the first Chinese phrases he learned from River's brother, Simon, when dealing with River when she's being stubborn and trying to needle Danny into giving in.

Danny remembers how she would follow him and Simon around, all the time asking questions in a combination of English and Chinese, persistent and determined to badger them until Danny finally blew up and answered all her questions. Back then he thought it weird that she was always talking in Chinese to him, but then he realized that she always talked like that even toward other people. Simon was being very vague whenever Danny would bring it up, so after awhile he stopped asking.

He learned Chinese just so that he could shock her into silence whenever he answered her question correctly in Chinese, though short and broken his answers were. It never failed to amaze River that he would go through all that trouble just to communicate with her.

"Wǒ xǐhuān yóuyǒng, Danny," 8 

"Fine!" He bites out, half irritated at himself for giving up so easily. "You can meet him later."

"Wode tìan!" 9 Danny huffs for appearance’s sake, pulling slightly on River's tresses and making the young woman shake with silent laughter.

"Now sleep."

+++

"Hachou!"

Steve brushes a finger across his nose. He’s been sneezing on and off for the last couple of minutes. He bites his lip worriedly, hoping he's not coming down with something. He has a lot planned for him and Danny this weekend, he can’t afford to get sick now.

**Author's Note:**

> Translation
> 
> 1 "Māde!" - "Fuck!" (Exclamation)  
> 2 "Dà gē - "Big brother" (formal) used to adress someone you're not related to  
> 3 "Nǐ zhàngfū hǎo má?" - "How is your husband?"  
> 4 "Zhè bìng bù huài. Méiyǒu shénme kě dānxīn de." - "It's not that bad. There's nothing to worry about."  
> 5 "Nǐ ài tǎ." - "You love him" (I have no idea if this sentence construction is actually accurate)  
> 6 "Never zhōngwén zěnme shuō?" - "How do you say never in Mandarin?"  
> 7 "Hâo le ma." - "That's enough, okay?"  
> 8 "Wǒ xǐhuān yóuyǒng, Danny" - "I like swimming, Danny."  
> 9 "Wode tìan" - It literally means "Oh sky!" In this case a colloquial to "Oh God!"


End file.
